Warren Buffett’s investment advice has as much to do with the human element behind companies as their financial standings, said a Baylor University student who heard the billionaire speak in an exclusive question-and-answer session.

“He doesn’t buy into companies that aren’t passionate about what they do,” said Stephanie Posey, an information systems senior from Magnolia who took part in the Omaha trip. “He can look at someone and tell they are passionate about what they do.”

He also told them, “Make sure you buy a company that can be run by idiots because some day an idiot’s going to be running it,” she said.

Posey traveled with 25 other Baylor students to take part in the Feb. 26 session.

Student groups from the University of Texas, Ohio State, Duke University, Western Ontario, Creighton University and New York University also were at the session in Buffet’s Omaha hometown. Buffett, one of the world’s richest people, hosted seven such sessions with college students last year.

Schools have to apply to take part, and there is a long waiting list. Hope Koch, assistant professor of information systems with Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business, said she had been trying to get Baylor into the program for three years.

Finally, Grady Rosier, chief executive officer with the McLane Co., a Temple firm owned by Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate, stepped in, Koch said.

Rosier got Baylor moved up on the list, she said.

Koch and Karen Mittendorf, assistant director for student services for the graduate business programs, accompanied the students.

Eleven students were from the university’s information systems program, and 15 were Master’s of Business Administration students.

The students toured Buffett’s Furniture Mart in Omaha before the Q&A session. Then came a meal at Buffett’s favorite Oklahoma eatery: Piccolo Pete’s.

The students also picked up some reassuring news about the economy.

Despite the recent, long recession and its continuing high unemployment hangover, things will get better, Buffett told the students.

“America has its ups and downs, but it always rebounds, and that’s just part of life,” MBA student Ty Findley said Buffett told them. “The country’s been through worse, and it always come back.”

Buffett did not directly address current economic policy but answered all questions, including one from a student who said Buffett’s personal politics seemed to clash with decisions made for operating his company, Findley said.

“As a person, he has a right to speak his mind. But when he’s in the building, he’s going to do what is right for Berkshire Hathaway,” Findley said Buffett told them.

Despite his sky-high personal wealth, Buffett’s feet are firmly planted on the ground, the Baylor students said.

Buffett took questions cold, without having them submitted ahead of time; he was humorous, friendly and humble.

“It was pretty cool to see someone with that much money be so down to Earth,” said Isaiah Cisneroz, a junior from Brownwood majoring in information systems.

Another information systems major, Marc Link, of Southlake, said Buffett’s recipe for success isn’t complicated.

“If you do something you like, you usually succeed in that field,” Link said.

bteeter@wacotrib.com

757-5734